Manchester United players earning half a million more than Manchester City rivals

Manchester United players earning half a million more than Manchester City rivals

Posted By Melissa Pelts on November 26, 2018

Gary Nevilles verdict on Manchester City, Liverpool, Tottenham and Chelsea so far this season

First-team players at Manchester United are earning on average half a million pounds a year more than Premier League champions Manchester City, according to the Global Sports Salaries Survey.

Meanwhile, Barcelona have become the first sports team to pay an average yearly salary of more than £10m.

United have endured a frustratingly inconsistent season, losing four and drawing three of their opening 13 games, and there have been suggestions that the club should potentially look to change the man in the dugout.

Giggs urges Man Utd not to sack Mourinho: It wont change anything!

Clubs in the Premier League are paying, on average, more than top-flight football clubs in any other country per game, although crickets Indian Premier League and American footballs NFL top the spending on a per-game basis.

Premier League winners and losers…

Manchester City may have won the Premier League last season, but they come in behind Manchester United this term on wages with the Old Trafford club paying an average of £6,534,654 per year to first-team players.

United are currently lagging behind rivals City and Liverpool, with both Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp yet to have been beaten in the league thus far this season.

“Everyone knows what a successful manager hes been over the years. I believe that bit of stability weve not had over the years – we need to stick with him.

Everton and West Ham follow closely behind Spurs, while Cardiff, Huddersfield and Burnley make up the bottom three – the Bluebirds are the only Premier League club to come in under £1m for the year.

That said, despite Burnleys average annual first-team wage of £1,603,197 placing them third-bottom of the Premier League pile, the Clarets are still paying more than the likes of Ligue 1s Monaco and Bundesliga side RB Leipzig.

“The two Manchester clubs, United and City, remain clear of the rest in basic pay terms according to our calculations,” say Sporting Intelligence, who conduct the survey.

“We thought last year that whichever of the pair achieved the most on the pitch would end up with the larger of the two overall wage bills (all staff) for 2017-18.

Wales boss Giggs, however, believes that there is no need to seek an alternative and has backed Mourinho to recover the situation.

“In fact City won the league and had wages of £260m and United faltered but paid out £296m.”

City finished as champions ahead of United, but while Pep Guardiolas side top the league again this campaign Jose Mourinhos outfit have slipped to seventh.

Sporting Intelligence says this was largely down to Uniteds return to the Champions League, but do point out some of Manchester Citys wage bill appears under the City Football Group.

Not only have Barcelona become the first sports club in the world to pay an average of more than £10m a year to first-team players, the Spanish giants have also broken the £200,000-per-week barrier for the first time.

The latest damning statistic is that Mark Hughess Southampton have created more chances in the league this season, and Saturday was a dirge. No matter how far you drop your expectations of this Manchester United team under Mourinho, they still manage to surprise you. Again, Mourinho can reasonably claim that his bosses have made competing with Manchester City difficult. But he cannot claim that he does not have the tools at his disposal to brush aside a Crystal Palace team in wretched form. A list of clubs that United have failed to beat at home in the last 12 months includes them, Derby County, West Brom, Burnley, Southampton and Wolves.

On average, first-teamers at the Nou Camp earn £10,454,259 a year, which translates to an average £201,043 per week.

Walker is still excellent, a reliable performer for one of Europes best teams. Kieran Trippier – more on him later – is struggling for club form but was Englands standout performer at the World Cup. Trent Alexander-Arnold scored a free-kick against Watford and is an integral part of Liverpools and Englands bright future. Joe Gomez can play there too. Aaron Wan-Bissaka is a strong candidate for a PFA Young Player of the Year nomination given his rise to prominence at Crystal Palace; he spent Saturday afternoon shackling Anthony Martial. Gareth Southgate is spoilt for choice.

European champions and La Liga rivals Real Madrid are second on the list with a yearly average of £8,089,582, with Italian side Juventus the third-highest paying football club at £6,726,615 on average per year.

Chelsea and Maurizio Sarri There are Chelsea supporters who will happily admit that this has been in the post for a while. Against Arsenal, Chelsea afforded their opponents six or seven presentable goalscoring chances. Against Everton, Jorginho was suffocated and stopped from playing the quick passes forward that Chelsea rely upon to unsettle the opposition. Against Tottenham, both happened. Chelsea were eventually humiliated by Heung-min Sons wonderful third goal, but they were knocked to the canvas in the opening exchanges of the game. You really should read 16 Conclusions.

Despite Barca and Reals dominance on the pay scale, the average Premier League yearly salary remains 36% higher than that of La Liga and almost double the amount paid to players in Italys Serie A.

But Sarri also has a midfield problem. NGolo Kante is rounded enough to play at left-back or as a false nine and still make it work, but playing him as the most advanced of three central midfielders emphatically fails to showcase his best. When Jorginho and Mateo Kovacic win their own personal duels it isnt a massive issue, but when Jorginho struggles – as on Saturday – it does make you yearn for Kantes omnipotence and omniscience. Both issues will need resolutions before Manchester City visit Stamford Bridge on December 8.

Basketballs Oklahoma City Thunder are the highest-paying non-football club, closely followed by Golden State Warriors, while outside of football and basketball it is Major League Baseballs Chicago Cubs who lead the way as the 30th highest-paying sports team.

With just 14 games per season, the IPL tops the charts for the average pay per player, per game at £274,624, while the NFL comes in at £138,354 over 16 games.

Claudio Ranieri A welcome win that still had a strong whiff of Slavisa Jokanovics Fulham, but a win all the same. Solving defensive tomfoolery will take all Ranieris experience, but those concerns are for another day. Ranieri is a football addict in the autumn of his career who was desperate for another challenge to fill his days and his mind. Returning to a city that he loves to help a free-flowing, expansive team is the perfect project to keep him happy. And when Uncle Claudio is happy, we should all be happy.

In comparison, Premier League teams are paying their players an average of £78,703 per match during a 38-game season.

Second-half Arsenal It is the most astonishing statistic of this Premier League season: the team that sits fifth in the division has not yet been ahead at half-time as we head into December. But if Arsenals slow starts are causing Unai Emery a headache, he must be mightily impressed by their response to such sluggishness. Arsenal have scored 21 second-half goals, more than any other Premier League club, and have conceded only six. Its enough to maintain their dream of breaking back into the top four.

“A new five-year TV rights deal, concluded last year for £1.96bn for 2018-2022, has come on stream. That guarantees the medium-term future of an event that has often struggled for certainty.

The question is how long this can be allowed to carry on. United need Champions League football, and right now Mourinho looks incapable of achieving that bare minimum goal. The best reason for keeping the manager they have is the uncertainty over who might take over. But the growing mood is that, as long as Mourinhos replacement brought a little fun back to Old Trafford, its worth the risk. The alternative is death by the apathy caused by a thousand slow attacks.

“Uniquely, IPL salaries are pro-rated from weekly pay to annual pay because, again uniquely, IPL players typically have multiple different professional employers concurrently.

“The vast majority of other teams in other leagues contract their players for at least a year at a time. You simply dont get NFL stars playing a season in the USA then another in Germany in the same year; or a Premier League player appearing freelance for six different teams in a campaign.”

Gary Neville gives his verdict on the Premier Leagues current top four – Manchester City, Liverpool, Tottenham and Chelsea.

Man City are currently top of the Premier League table, leading Liverpool by two points with both sides winning this weekend. Chelsea suffered their first league defeat to Tottenham, who lead them by two points in third.